Extensions Lewis's Limited Emporium Mosley Street Manchester

FEATURES OF LEWIS'S NEW EXTENSION - It would seem that this Manchester store is never done growing. The original premises were pulled down in 1912 and rebuilt twice the size, a street at the rear being closed up for the purpose. After the war, the premises still being far too small, an extension twice the size of the existing building was constructed at the rear, another street being closed up at this time also (in each case satisfactory arrangements were made with the Corporation). This was only completed two years ago, but so rapidly was its capacity strained to the limit that further adjoining property in Mosley-street was bought up for yet another extension.

This is the building which is now near to completion. Except for the fact that the popular Lewis's Arcade runs through the ground floor and separates it from the main building, the whole extension joins directly on to the main building. The new structure, five storeys high, is carried out in the strong and effective modern style associated with the Manchester stores, and is fronted with Portland stone. The windows are steel casements, with electro-copper glazing and the doors and shop fronts are of bronze. There is a large entrance on the Mosley-street frontage and another one opposite to it in the Arcade (this in turn being opposite to an entrance to the main building across the Arcade). These entrances with their vestibules are surrounded on the outside with black granite and Hopton Wood stone, and on the side with black and dove marble.  The new building includes a grand staircase from ground floor to fifth floor, executed in marble, and also an escalator from the ground floor to the first floor. These moving staircases have proved a very popular novelty feature since they were first introduced in the last extension. The ground floor of the extension is paved in Appalachian marble and walled with marble also. The Arcade is paved with the same Appalachian marble ,whilst the basement is paved with light Bardiglio marble. The first, fourth and fifth floors are floored with polished oak wood blocks and the other floors with compressed cork sheets covered with linoleum. Three of the floors are already in use, serving as extensions of existing departments in two cases, but in the third introducing something new in a section for modernistic furnishings. Here it is possible to see all the newest trends in decoration, furniture and furnishings, including cubist and other styles. The Asurprise@ new department, to be announced later, will be in the new building. The top floor is to be used for administrative offices, and will be divided up with oak screens, the upper parts of which will be glazed with electro-copper glazing The extension is designed and built by the firms responsible for all Messrs Lewis's city construction, Messrs J W Beaumont and Sons, chartered architects, (24, Brazennose-street, Manchester), and Messrs Robert Carlyle and Company Limited, Old Trafford. [Manchester City News 28 September 1929. Pages 8 and 9]

Reference    Builder 31 August 1928 Page 361
Reference    Manchester City News 28 September 1929. Pages 8 and 9